Why not make it hard?

Having scored some (very unexpected) insurance runs in the eighth inning to make it 4-1, the Nationals had brilliantly leveraged their strengths: another great outing from John Patterson and their lights-out closer, Chad Cordero. This is what has made the Nationals a surprising success this year. They are not a team that can score runs on demand, which explains why they have such a bad record in extra inning games. To win, the Nationals have to build leads behind strong starting pitching and then hand the ball to one of the best closers in the league, and that's exactly what they did Saturday night. Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned.

Patterson gave up only one run and five hits in 7 2/3 innings; he struck out eight and allowed only one walk. His only blemish was a second inning solo home run by Pat Burrell. Oh, and there was that problem in the eighth. With two outs, Rollins and Lofton singled, leaving runners at first and third. Joey Eischen relieved Patterson and promptly walked Chase Utley to load the bases. Fortunately, Eischen struck out Bobby Abreu to end the inning.

At that point it was 2-1, and it looked like another one-run victory for the Nats. Then something unexpected happened. With two outs, Vinny Castilla hit a ground ball to David Bell, whose throw to first was off target. Still, it was a throw that Ryan Howard should have fielded, but he didn't. Castilla went to second and then scored on Marlon Byrd's single. Byrd went to second on the throw home and then scored on Gary Bennett's single. That made it 4-1 and this game was effectively over.

Until, that is, something REALLY unexpected happened. Burrell singled off Cordero to open the ninth. Cordero then threw a good down and away pitch to Howard, who smashed it over the left-center fence to make it 4-3. It's hard to criticize Cordero for that, given that he hadn't blown a save in three months and threw a good pitch. If that was all that happened, we could just chalk the whole thing up to chance and a good hitter doing what he gets paid for. But that's not all that happened: Cordero then put one in David Bell's wheel house, and Bell hit it off the facing of the upper deck in left field to tie game. Bell doesn't have much of a wheel house--he's hitting .202 with a .548 OPS against righties--but Cordero found it.

Depression started to set in because the Nationals had squandered their strength, and were now forced back onto their greatest weakness--their inability to score runs on demand. The bottom of the ninth showed why this is such a problem for them. With one out, Brad Wilkerson singled and Ryan Madsen walked Deivi Cruz. Jose Guillen then worked the count to 2-0. Now, Madsen had just walked Cruz and was having trouble finding the strike zone. If Guillen walks, the bases are loaded and the Nationals only need a fly ball to win the game. This was a time for Guillen to be very conservative at the plate and to wait for a pitch he could drive. Disregarding this opportunity, Guillen swung at a pitch down and away that was clearly a ball. Guillen's refusal to respect the strike zone is undoubtedly his greatest weakness (other than his mercurial personality, of course) and it really hurt the Nationals here. Guillen hit a weak grounder to first that advanced the runners, but with two outs the Nationals needed a single to win the game. Preston Wilson struck out, and the Nationals had squandered a golden opportunity.

Thankfully, the bullpen shut down the Phillies after Cordero's meltdown, and the Nats won it in the twelfth. With one out, Guillen walked (why couldn't he have done that in the ninth!) and went to second on a passed ball. Wilson then poked a single over the infield into right field to score Guillen and win the game.

As Frank Robinson made clear after the game, this was a game the Nationals had to win. Unfortunately, the same logic applies to today's game. We'll talk about that later; for now, let's savor a big win in a must-win situation. It wasn't pretty, but it was a win, and that's a very good thing.